“Until recently, many EDA vendors considered the software too complex to
use without significant technical support for piracy to be a major
concern. Advances in EDA software and access to fabrication have
resulted in increasing concerns about software piracy,” said Scott
Baeder, Chairman of the EDA Consortium’s Anti-Piracy Committee and
Senior Architect at Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

The EDA Consortium is working with multiple companies in the anti-piracy
field to investigate EDA software piracy from multiple aspects. One
aspect is availability – what software is available and where. Using a
carefully chosen sampling of EDA products from various EDAC member
companies, an investigation was conducted for EDAC by Arxan, Inc. into
pirated EDA software availability and download activity on the internet.
This will be followed by a more detailed investigation into how the
“cracking” is being done, which could lead to improved software
protection. Initial results have been interesting both from the
standpoint of what is being pirated and the audacity of the pirates.

Another aspect of the investigation is focusing more on detection and
identification of unauthorized use. A recent webinar conducted by V.i.
Labs, Inc and EDAC presented this approach, which has been successfully
used by EDAC members and others to re-coup revenues that would have been
lost through piracy, both intentional and inadvertent. (Recognizing
there are cases where the end user may not be aware they are using
pirated software.)

A third aspect of the investigation, conducted for EDAC by S.A.F.E.
Inc., bridges the other two approaches, looking at both the potential
software vulnerabilities and the extent of the revenue loss to EDA
vendors. This investigation looks at different categories of EDA
software as well as different types of piracy, both intentional and
unintentional.

In addition to the ongoing investigations, Mr. Baeder recently presented
an overview of EDA software piracy to ICAF – Industrial College of the
Armed Forces – which may have an interest in any national security
implications of software piracy.

As the investigation proceeds, interim results have been presented to
the EDAC Board of Directors and members. When the investigations are
concluded, final reports will be made available to EDAC members.

About the EDA Consortium

The EDA Consortium is the international association of companies that
provide design tools and services that enable engineers to create the
world’s electronic products used for communications, computer, space
technology, medical, automotive, industrial equipment, and consumer
electronics markets among others. For more information about the EDA
Consortium visit
www.edac.org.

About Arxan Technologies

Arxan Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of application hardening
solutions designed to protect software applications from tampering to
minimize risk and maximize profitability. Our advanced software
protection solutions secure enterprises, ISVs and digital media
providers against unauthorized use, malware insertion, piracy, and
reverse engineering of intellectual property. Our products defend,
detect, alert and react to attacks through a threat-based, customizable
approach that is proven, easy to use and non-disruptive. Arxan supports
a full range of application protection needs, from commercial software
to military grade assurance. The government relies on ADS Systems to
deliver a best-of-breed anti-tamper platform to protect critical program
information. Founded in 2001, Arxan Technologies has offices in
Bethesda, MD, San Francisco, CA and West Lafayette, IN. For more
information, please visit
www.arxan.com.

About V.i. Laboratories (V.i. Labs)

V.i. Labs is the first company to offer Piracy Business Intelligence and
Software Protection solutions that enable companies to recover revenue
and protect their software intellectual property by detecting,
reporting, and preventing the misuse of their applications. Its patented
CodeArmor® platform allows software vendors and enterprise organizations
to harden their applications against theft and tampering, and to gain
business intelligence on the unlicensed use of their software to uncover
new revenue streams. V.i. Labs is privately held and is headquartered in
Waltham, Mass. For more information, please visit
www.vilabs.com.

About S.A.F.E. Corporation

S.A.F.E. Corporation is the leading firm providing software and services
for detecting intellectual property theft, measuring software IP, and
comparing software source code and object code. CodeSuite has been used
by law firms for IP litigation cases around the world. CodeSuite has
also been used by tax attorneys to track changes through multiple
generations of programs in order to do accurate IP valuations. The
corporate headquarters is in Cupertino, California.

The information supplied by the EDA Consortium is believed to be
accurate and reliable, but the EDA Consortium assumes no responsibility
for any errors that may appear in this document. All trademarks and
registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners